If I told you that for my summer internship I worked in a converted barn in New Hampshire, took hikes along the Connecticut river during my lunch hour, and used the knowledge from my CEO [Creating Effective Organizations] class nearly every day, you’d probably think I was lying. And you’d be right – but only about the CEO part. For ten weeks, I worked for Student Conservation Association, an environmental nonprofit whose mission is to "change lives through service to nature." 

Originally, I didn’t want to work for a nonprofit, but when I heard about the position at SCA, it was too good an opportunity to pass up: it matched up well with my skills & experience, I liked the mission of the organization, and after nine months of trying to adjust to New York City life, trading the urban jungle for New England charm sounded like just what I needed. No 4 a.m. car alarms, no 3-foot-wide aisles at the grocery store, no drunks ‘protecting’ my stoop for a small fee. So, on June 1st, I found myself driving down a country road, surrounded by farmland, headed towards my first day of work.   

SCA’s headquarters are in Charlestown, New Hampshire, just over the border from Vermont. For the first few weeks, the remoteness was unnerving, but I slowly got re-acclimated to peace & quiet (it’s harder than you think). Many of my evenings were spent exploring surrounding towns and countryside, armed with a milkshake from the 'Country Creemee.' Back in Southern California, 'historical' basically means early 20th century, but here I was surrounded by colonial-era covered bridges and cemeteries filled with the graves of Civil War veterans.   

My job was to analyze the market for training programs in ecology and conservation-related topics. We measured the market size for youth programs with school enrollment data, conducted a market survey, and created sample budgets and cost structures to see if we could create a profitable program. Although the project was grounded in market research, time and budget constraints prevented me from using more involved techniques such as conjoint analysis (although it was nice to know just how conjoint analysis would have been really helpful). From time to time, other topics from our core classes would crop up: indirect costs when creating net revenue projections, or managing relationships when trying to get busy co-workers to help with my project. (Actually, the most helpful experience from 1st year wasn’t a class but a club – the Small Business Consulting Program, simply because it was incredibly valuable to have been through a consulting project from start to finish.) And, despite my cheap shot at the start of the article, I actually did use CEO in a small but meaningful way. After my first week, one of the directors asked me for my thoughts on the organization in general. I observed that informal structures such as ad-hoc committees were very common, and seemingly quite effective. It was definitely a perspective I never would have had without our beloved core course. I didn’t think much of it, but within a few days word had gotten back to me that 'the guy from Columbia Business School' had been impressed with the organization. I’m not sure if that says more about CEO or CBS, but it was certainly helpful to have both the brand and the core curriculum helping out in unexpected ways.  

In the end, I presented our findings to the executive team and they were grateful for the job I had done. It was a terrific experience, but despite the idyllic conditions of the job, I found myself eager to get back to school. Ten weeks in the boonies, however beautiful, was enough; I almost found myself missing the drunk who guards my stoop. Almost.